Happy Times

My beautiful dad.

The beach houses surrounding the house we stayed in. The agapanthus grows wild in front of these houses. I would love to see them flowering.

The gardens in this small sleepy beach side town are to-die-for.



Table set for Dad's Birthday lunch.






I spotted this cute beach shack when I was out picking flowers and loved it. In New Zealand I've noticed they paint many of their houses black and white which I love.



I had a bath in this huge clawfoot bath every day we were there. I love the little vintage butterfly prints on the wall.




When we eventually renovate the kitchen in our new house I definitely want to have a cabinet built just like this one which was in the kitchen at the beach house. It was so perfect for all the plates, platters, cups etc.

The beach in front of the house.

We've just returned home from a week in New Zealand where we celebrated my father's 60th Birthday. After spending a few days in Auckland we caught a plane down to Napier and drove down to a beautiful beach house my parent's have been frequenting over the past 12 months in a sleepy beach side town in Hawkes Bay. We spent 3 days here with my parents, brothers, cousins, aunty & uncle and our grandmother. It was the most wonderful holiday with lots of laughs, lots of tears and lots of reminiscing. Mum cooked an amazing lunch for Dad on his birthday. I went down the street and picked some gorgeous roadside flowers which I arranged for the table. It was the most amazing week away from work and the craziness of life. Happy 60th Birthday Dad. You are one in a million and we all love you so much.

If anyone is interested in staying at this beautiful house click HERE for details.

Sneakity Peek: Rugs for Pure Style Home!

As I recently mentioned, we're working on getting an online store up & running for Pure Style Home.  It's going to be filled with one-of-a-kind things I absolutely love and want to keep.  (But because I'm not independently wealthy and don't have ten houses, must sell ;)  I am SO INSANELY EXCITED over the rugs we just recently found to be sold in the shop!!  (We were only able to buy 4 to start out with-  rugs are a serious investment- eek!)  All of the rugs chosen are hand-knotted, have an antique washed feel, and I want to keep every single one.  I'm in the process of photographing them and was just too excited not to share with you.  This one is a Mamluk rug, created in the style of rugs produced during the Mamluk Dynasty in 14th Century Egypt.  It's full of golds and browns with splashes of pale blue-green:

It's approximately 8 x 11 and I'm seriously in love,  Here's a close-up:

I'm really not a sales person but have started this venture out of my love for stuff.  Yeah, there I said it, I LOVE STUFF.  But I can't keep it all, and in my job, I see so many beautiful things that it's hard to walk away from them.  It's hard for me to "sell" things to anyone, but if I don't, I'll end up with either a house smashed-full of beautiful things and an empty bank acoount or having to continue to walk away from all of these treasures.  So, the new shop will be my outlet for making these items available to clients & others who love them as much as I do...  a place for my "uncommon finds."  I hope you never feel that posts like this are "salesy" and that I'm trying to push anything on you...  I hope you see it as me being so excited that I want to share things with you because that's truly what it is.

{A bunch of the other items in the photos above will be for sale too, but I'm not sure which ones yet as I'm having trouble parting with them- ha!}

 

I'm adding inventory to the store daily and am trying to get it up and running as quickly as possible.  I'll keep you posted!!  Would love to know what you think of it!!

The Tempel Lipizzan Legacy

A few miles from my dad's lake house (where we're visiting now) are the Tempel Lipizzan Stables which house Lipizzans, Europe's oldest domesticated horses, owned by the Tempel Smith family (of Tempel Steel).  The grounds are incredible and we love going to see the shows.

 

{The Stables}

According to Lippizan.com, "Lipizzans are Europe's oldest domesticated breed of horse. They not only possess beauty and nobility, but also a rare combination of courage, strength, ability, temperament, and intelligence.

The Lipizzan breed had its beginning in 1580"... and was created by a combination of different breeds... They have been moved throughout the past 400 years numerous times to survive various wars including the Napoleanic Wars, and World Wars I & II.  "In 1945 General patton executed a daring rescue of the Lippizzans, the story of which is told in Disney's The Miracle of the White Stallions."

{photo of a photo I saw in the stables}

"In 1955, millionaire Tempel Smith (Tempel Steel) of Chicago, imported 20 Lipizzans from Austria, 11 from Hungary, and 6 from Yugoslavia..."

{Me creepily taking photos of one of the riders who was resting between performances...  he totally caught me- oops!}

..."Tempel Smith devoted 15 years, until his death in 1980, importing and breeding his herd to over 400 horses. Since Tempel Smith's death, much of the herd was disbursed. However, Tempel Farms still breeds a number of Lipizzans each year, and they still successfully compete Lipizzans for Tempel Farms."

 

{The Show...  The woman above was so beautiful & poised...  exactly what you would imagine. }

This year, the weather was perfect when we took Christian & Justin to see the show.  The horses are just incredible:

I can't believe how high they jump!!!

The boys had so much fun and even 7-month-old Justin was into it...

 

 {I loved this photo from the stables}

And Christian loved the old "fire truck"- 

I'm apey over the Guest House, which sits high up on a hill overlooking the grounds:

 

It can be rented for private events and there's a pool in the back:

  

... which overlooks this:

 

And the stables house some of the best design I've ever seen:

The hallway was gorgeous. 

 

They've kept everything as it was in the 50s:

Check out the heat lamps the horses use when being bathed:

...And of course I can't see all of this and not start to think about interiors.  Oh my gosh, please someone call me with a horse fetish!!!  (err passion ;)  I'm dying to do a home for a horse-lover now!!

  Check out these photos taken by Roger Davies for Elle Decor of Mark Badgley and James Mishcka’s home:  Mmmmmm.. love it!

 And this one from Nuevo Estilo Magazine via La Dolce Vita:

(I can't help but get a little bit excited for Fall when looking at all of these images but I'm holding it back because Summer's still in full force.)  

And one last picture of the horses as we drove by another day on the way home to the house...  You can see them right on Hunt Club Road: 

  

{The Tempel Lipizzans}

If you're still in the mood for horse-inspired interiors, definitely check out these 2 posts full of equestrian eye candy:  (so gorgeous!!!)

Chic Equestrian Style in Home Decor by Simplified Bee
Equestrian Chic by La Dolce Vita

Debra & Scentimental Gardens

{Love fig trees!!}

Last week we got to stop over to see our friend Debra Phillips at Scentimental Gardens in Geneva, IL and I was in Heaven!!  {Debra also recently opened up another store on Grand Ave in Chicago and writes the blog 5th & State. }  Debra & Sarah (below) greeted us at the shop and they are so warm & sweet.  Debra's amazing with kids & even gave Christian an adorable little concrete turtle he promptly named "Sammy."

{Sarah & Debra}

I was totally in love with this room and wanted pretty much everything in it.  The slate tile floors were hidden underneath blah carpeting when Debra first moved in. 

How adorable are the chalkboard signs/ labels? (below)  What a cute way to label a drink.

Check out the industrial tabe below (mm mm!) and lately I've also been been loving silhouettes.

And here's one last photo at Scentimental Gardens of us all before a yummy lunch:

{Dave, baby Justin, me with Christian, and Debra}

While we were in Geneva, we also stopped at the butterfly house at Peck Farm.  Christian's been very into butterflies lately (there's a Little Einstein movie about them) and loved it:

I thought this one, called a "Julia," was awesome:

If you can get to Geneva, it's so worth it!!  ...  Lots of great shops & an adorable town and of course you have to stop in and see Debra!! (And the butterflies if you're into that) One of the things I love most about blogging is making & meeting new friends.  It's so much fun to be with other design junkies & to feel like you already know someone before you've even met them.    

And More...

Stuart Membery and I before the guests arrived above.

Melanie, Kelly & I before the guests arrived above.

A better shot of the tutu desk.

Me speaking to our guests and introducing Stuart Membery...I look like I'm about to fly off the hot pink stool I was standing on!!

The store front before our 170 guests arrived on Wednesday night.

Melanie with some of our guests

Are you getting bored yet of my photos??!! Sorry! Here are a few shots of our re-opening party. I have lots more but I didn't want to post photos of my clients just in case they were not happy to be seen on the blog. Anyway, I am now taking a few days off. It's been a very hectic couple of months and I feel like I need to spend a few days with my boys.

xx

Anna